


Comparing Scars

by cofax



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Episode Related, Gen, bechdel passage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-23
Updated: 2009-11-23
Packaged: 2017-10-03 15:51:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cofax/pseuds/cofax
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A missing scene from "Beachhead" (season 8).</p>
            </blockquote>





	Comparing Scars

Her BDUs were tight. Sam grimaced and forced the zipper anyway. The food at Area 51 wasn't any better than it was here, but there she didn't have anyone chivvying her out of the lab and into the gym. No six-mile runs back to the gate in the snow, carrying ore samples and dodging Jaffa. It made a difference.

Cam seemed to be settling in okay, although Daniel was on edge. He'd been pretty cagey about the whole Vala thing on the phone, trying not to make a big deal out of it. Sam was going to have to pin Teal'c down to get the whole story about this woman--

\--who was in the locker room with her.

Vala let the door swing shut and without a glance at Sam, went to the locker at the end of the row, the one they left empty for temporary personnel. She pulled out a bundle that looked like BDUs and began to strip out of her slinky black outfit, putting one foot on the bench to undo the laces of her tall boots.

"So," said Sam after a moment. "Settling in okay?"

The other woman looked up at her, and flashed an entirely insincere smile. "Splendid. You?"

Sam was _not_ going to pull rank. "I haven't had time to read the whole mission report, but it sounds like you and Daniel had a pretty hard time."

Vala shrugged elaborately, still with that smile. "Nothing I haven't been through before." She straightened and stretched so her shirt rode up, exposing an impressive set of abs.

Sam mentally booked another weekly session with Sergeant Mathers, but protested, "But -- they _burned you_! Anyone would--"

Vala pursed her lips, letting the smile go, and turned away. Head down, she peeled out of her short skirt and pulled a pair of pants on. "Didn't Daniel tell you? I've been tortured before."

_Oh._ Sam sat down on the bench and started checking her pack. After a moment, she said, "I'd forgotten that you were a host, too."

"Too?" Vala looked up sharply, for the first time her face unguarded. "You were--?"

Sam nodded. "Yes, but not for long. And it--she--was a Tok'ra. It was different."

"Tok'ra." Vala's eyes went hooded. She looked away and took a BDU jacket out of the locker. "I know the Tok'ra."

Sam had never before spoken to someone who'd been a Goa'uld host, and _survived_. Sarah had been too traumatized for questioning. And Kendra had died even before Jolinar happened. Jolinar, who hadn't asked, for all the Tok'ra spoke of only taking willing hosts. It had been a long time since Sam thought about Jolinar. She tried not to, tried not to remember the feeling, held voiceless and paralyzed in her own brain, hearing only the hammering of her own pulse and the echoing voice of the symbiote.

Selmak hadn't been like that. Lantash hadn't been. And yet, and still.

"Maybe--" Sam said, and zipped the pack shut. Vala looked up, eyebrow raised. "Maybe not so different," finished Sam.


End file.
